No. 4: a graphic novel
De smokkelaar [the smuggler] / Milan Hulsing

I know little about the genre of graphic novels aside from the two I read before. I don’t know why I don’t read them more because the ones I read (Maus and Giant) were amazing and great respectively. Another reason to be glad about the reading challenge, pushing me to this genre.
This time I picked up a book that turned out to be only published in Dutch, but the story is amazing and I truly hope it gets the translation it deserves to spread the word.

The title translates into The Smuggler and the smuggler from the title is Laszlo, a Hungarian who fled his his country. The story takes place in the 1950s and 60s which has Hungary invaded by Russia and under a strict communist regime. Laszlo had to flee his country for the role he played in smuggling Z.O.L.T.A.N. comics produced in the Eastern Bloc, to the West.
On the run, he travels the world and at one point ends up in the Caribbean where he lands a job as a diver. Here, he also meets an eccentric Hungarian millionaire, who shares his hatred for the communism that is keeping their country in its grip. When Cuba becomes a communist country as well, the fear for the spread of communism to the other islands in the Caribbean intensifies and Laszlo and his friend are convinced they need to help nip it in the bud as they’ve seen up close what it can do to a country.
They do this, by launching the Z.O.L.T.A.N. comics in the United States, its extreme and political message something unheard of in America at the time. While the Cold War intensifies, the pop-art scene explodes, and the Z.O.L.T.A.N. comics become one of the leading items of this scene, with Laszlo hailed as its developer even though he only was the one smuggling them out from behind the Iron Curtain.
His millionaire friend buys Laszlo time in the media, with tv interviews and a spread in Life magazine. The media attention is used to drive home the warning message against communism.
However, the attention that they draw also reaches Hungary and the authorities start to track down the people behind Z.O.L.T.AN.. Instead of arresting the true genius, Laszlo’s former mentor Kalman, they use the witch hunt to arrest anyone in the Eastern Bloc they suspect to be involved with anti-socialism: academics, journalists, and artists alike.

The story is told by Naomi, the daughter of the owner of the ship Laszlo works on as a diver. Naomi is an independent storyteller but one with a lot of fantasy, making the story unbelievable in parts. This is fitting with the topic of fake news which was one of the main drivers of the Cold War.

I really liked this graphic novel and enjoyed both the story and its drawings.

No. 6 – A book that is set in the future
This is How You Lose the Time War / Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Confession: I really, really, want to read The Ministry of Time which would have fitted this category perfectly. However, I also really, really want to finish the reading challenge and with three books to go and three weeks left, size of the book and ease to get it became the higher priorities.
This is How You Lose the Time War is an intriguing title though and I was still eager enough to get my hands on it.

The story is about Blue and Red. They are agents sent to secure the future for their worlds. They travel through time and space to execute the orders they receive. Because their worlds are at war, they are each other’s enemies.
The story starts in the middle of all of this, in the aftermath of a battle that was fought on a dying planet. Red wades through the mass of dead bodies she left behind to pick up a note. The instructions are to burn before reading which is a fun play on normal secret agent talk and it sets the tone. The note is from Blue, her competitor, her enemy.
Red replies to the note by leaving something hidden for Blue to find in the next location she is sent to. And this is how the book continues. Blue or Red arriving somewhere sometime to manipulate the future, and finding a message from the other who had already been there. It leads to messages implanted in the strangest locations which is kind of fun but also confusing at times, such as the ones with words written in a cloud, boiling water, or inside an animal for example. I decided there was no way to understand it, I just had to accept it for what it was and read on.
There never is much of an explanation to anything. How are they travelling? Who is giving their orders and why? The chapters jump from Red to Blue in the same way they jump through time and space: Blue on yet another sinking Atlantis. Red inside a volcano that she’s triggering to erupt at some time.
They don’t care about the worlds and times they arrive at: they’re there to execute an order and that’s it. They are not anthropologists, explorers, or historians; they are ruthless agents.
We do learn that one of them is from an elfish like wood-world, the other is a bot created in a lab but both come with the specific purpose to chase and kill.
Trained and tough as they might be, their jobs are difficult and lonely, and although it is dangerous, they start to look forward to a note left by the other. The notes are sometimes taunting, sometimes honest. Over time the notes become more personal, revealing dreams and fears and love.

This is a kind of high-concept book and very different kind of book, although maybe that’s because I’m not used to reading science fiction. The feel of the story reminded me a lot of the Loki series.
There is so much left unexplained that it makes the book readable because if the time travelling and the worlds, and the reasons for war would have been explained, the story would have become too much to work through. And it probably wouldn’t have made any sense. With all this left out, you can imagine the backstory any way you like; it’s open for interpretation while the story can focus on Blue and Red because despite the war and destruction this is in its core a love story.
This book was a roller coaster ride for me. It started off a bit difficult to get into, then I was fully on board, but the ending was too much for me. It was difficult to keep track of what timeline the story was in and I felt it made things unnecessarily complicated. I would have been okay with the story ending two or even three chapters earlier than it did.
All in all, still glad I read this.

No. 20 – A book with a body part in the title
Once upon a broken heart / Stephanie Garber

This book is YA fantasy and that’s a combination of two genres I don’t typically gravitate towards. And after the disappointment of my previous read, I was a bit hesitant to start this but I was pleasantly surprised by what a palate cleanser this turned out to be!

The book is the first in a trilogy and sets the scene really well. The story contains all the elements of a classic fairy tale: orphaned pretty girl, wicked step-family, curses, love, and a morale.
Evangeline Fox is the heroine. She believes in happily ever afters, is a tad naïve, and only dreams about marrying her one true love.
When Evangeline finds out that the guy she loves is about to marry her step-sister, she is utterly heartbroken. She’s so desperate to stop the wedding that she goes to a church and begs the Prince of Hearts to intervene.
The Prince of Hearts is called Jacks and he is an immortal, a Fate. Once upon a time there was an incident and all the Fates were captured in a deck of cards. Jacks has escapted the deck.
Jacks is charismatic and eager to answer Evangeline’s request, in return for only three kisses, to be given at a time and place of his choice (the kisses don’t even have to be for him). This deal seems too good to be true but Evangeline is eager and gives her word. Evangeline quickly learns that striking a deal with a Fate requires reading the fine print, because Jacks’ solution to stop the wedding, nearly causes her demise. The event makes Evangeline realise that Jacks must have an agenda of his own but she is stuck to him due to their deal.
The adventures that follow see Evangeline travel to The North, where she meets a prince, and more Fates that escaped the deck of cards. There are vampires, potions and spells, and there is murder.
Evangeline’s naïveté borders on annoying: she makes some silly mistakes causing unnecessary drama. In the beginning she is also very much apathetic and has stuff happening to her (she has people decide on her outfits, is practically married off to someone she doesn’t like), rather than be involved in any way herself.
But, she does show growth and three-quarters into the story, finally starts to show a bit of an edge.
On the opposite end of the spectrum Jacks is nothing but edge. He’s very broody and mysterious and doesn’t let anyone get close. He holds his cards close to his chest (ha) and doesn’t want anyone involved in his personal business (whatever that might be).
The book ends with Evangeline finally realizing that and making a decision purely for herself. The door that she opens is connected to another door in the castle and that’s where the story ends. What’s the door of Evangelines chosing? What’s the deal with that other door? How is Jacks going to react to Evangeline’s action? It’s a to be continued!
I liked this book enough to borrow the other titles if ever bumped into them, but I’m not that eager that I’ll bother with a reservation or a run to the library.

The other titles in this series:
Book 2: The Ballad of Never After
Book 3: A Curse for True Love

Note: I’ve seen different versions of cover art for this title (series) so be aware when you purchase! (so annoying when one of the books of a series you have is in a different edition than the others)

No. 17 – A book with an antonym in the title
Big little spells / Hazel Beck
(book two of the Witchlore series)

This wasn’t an easy category to fill and I admit: I settled for this book.
Like in real life, one shouldn’t settle because it’ll only end in disappointment. Yup, this one became a DNF: Did Not Finish.

Books about witches are generally not on my radar but they’re hard to ignore this time of year, and because it’s a genre that seems to be particularly into pun-fun titles, I put my doubts aside and went for it.
And it might be on me for picking the second book in a series, but I never got into swing of things: it felt like jumping onto a moving merry-go-round. This book picks up right where the first one ended and I never truly found my balance and kept stumbling through it. And because that’s no fun either on a merry-go-round nor in a book, I eventually gave up and jumped off. I’m still counting it for the reading challenge though, because I did give it my all and didn’t quit until page 212 out of 374.

The story is about Rebekah and Emerson Wilde, sisters and witches. After Emerson has re-discovered her witch-being, and Rebekah helped her and her friends save their hometown (book one), the book starts with the sisters and their friends facing the local coven to face the consequences of their actions. Something had happened ten years ago that had Emerson forget that she’s a witch and Rebekah was exiled, and because they have broken those punishments the coven decides that the sisters have to take an exam on their witch skills. I guess you can’t have witches with half-skills running around. Along with their friends they also have to attend their local high school’s prom. This is not just a prom, but more of a coming out like they do in high society with involvement from the parents.
A lot of the drama is high school related and not in the healthy grown-up way where time and distance make you look back and reflect, but in a way that felt petty and silly. This made the story feel more YA than the witchy rom-com it says it is.

The first twenty pages contain a lot of introductions with names, and titles attached to them (there are diviners, immortals, healers), and it felt more like an information dump than actual story. And although the story is not that complicated to get into, there was something about the style that didn’t work for me. There was a lot of inner-thought narrating (that just never seemed to stop), and especially in combination with the information dumping it didn’t feel natural. (Nor super-natural).
Then I started noticing that there was a lot of cursive to emphasize words. On top of that, the cursive is also used for internalized conversations with cats, text message conversations, spells, and text that is being read, and it was so much that it overshot its intention and reached a point that it became distracting and annoying. It got so bad that I started to keep track of it for a chapter, and out of twenty pages there was one (one!) that didn’t have this tool used.
I don’t consider myself a nit-picker but when a story isn’t pulling you in, you notice these things.

Because it’s (sort-of) a rom-com, Rebekah has a love interest. This is local immortal Nicholas. Nicholas and Rebekah have history, and not in the good way: ten years ago, he set her up to fail and now she needs him to teach her and her sister and friends what they need to know for their exams. Needless to say, Rebekah isn’t happy about the situation and doesn’t trust him as far as she can hit him with lightening. Everybody that witnesses them arguing and battling in magical fights, comments that they have so much tension together but I didn’t feel that. I also didn’t really feel the connection between any of the other characters; there was a lot of description but not enough showing for me.
Rebekah complains that she’s being treated like a teenager, but she’s also acting like one. When I started the book, I kept going back to the part where her age is mentioned to remind myself of it because she reads young and immature. She’s considered edgy and cool (mostly by herself) because of her tattoos and piercings and choice of clothes. I guess this was all meant as a way to indicate her status as the local rebel but again, the actions to cement that were lacking. Rebekah came across more like someone who really wants to be something, rather than is something. And for a main character in a very specific state of being, that’s problematic.

When I was ready to call it quits, I checked the last chapter to see how this book ends, hoping that would intrigue me into continuing. Unfortunately, it didn’t and realized I just didn’t care enough about these characters to put in more effort. While I really wanted to like this book, I admitted defeat and gave up: it and I just didn’t click.

If you do want to dig in and give it a go, I strongly suggest starting with the first book in the series (Small Town, Big Magic). And if you really can’t get enough, it might be good to know that there is a third book as well (Truly Madly Magically).

No. 13 – A book set during a holiday
A Holly Jolly Diwali / Sonya Lalli

In my experience holiday reads mostly tend to be cutesy low-angst reads set during Christmas; it’s an entire sub-genre of romance novels and cosy murder mysteries that seems to have gained in popularity over the past few years. Hanukah seems the second-most popular holiday for setting.
And I have to admit; I was tempted. I’m into Christmas (booked a trip to a Christmas Market way back in September) and do enjoy cozy reads, but for some reason I wasn’t feeling it yet. I also kind of wanted something different because Christmas and Hanukah are not the only holidays celebrated in the world. So behold: a book set during Diwali, the Festival of Light celebrated by Sikhs, Hindus, Jains and Buddhists. Judging from the cover alone I figured one thing would be the same: it’s a cutesy low-angst read. After a couple of serious and intense books I could use something a bit lighter so I eagerly got in.

The story is about Niki: twenty-nine and single. Or very single, as her parents call her when they stage an intervention one Saturday night in the living room. Because yes, she’s still living at home. She chose to stay at home in order to save up as much money as possible to repay her student loans after she graduated college and landed herself a job as a data analyst. Niki is organized, always thinks things through, and isn’t the most spontaneous of people. Her parents have set up a blind date for her with the son of friends of friends and although Niki isn’t enthusiastic she is too obliging not to go. To her surprise she has a good time on the date but the timing isn’t perfect: she’s late to meet him because she was busy getting fired due to budget cuts in the office.
Getting fired leaves her in a state of shock but it also suddenly frees up her calendar. Now, she can go to India to attend her friend’s wedding there. Her family is surprised to discover her spontaneity but welcome it. Niki herself isn’t quite sure how to feel about it but does realize that the trip will be a good way to get a new perspective on her life and future.

Niki travels to India for the first time in her life. The daughters of immigrants, Niki and her sister grew up more American than Indian: Niki doesn’t speak Punjabi, doesn’t know the meaning of Diwali, or names of Bollywood actors. This meant Niki and I had the same knowledge gap and I learned along with her, which made things very easy to follow.
During the wedding celebrations Niki meets Sam, bass player in a band, and it is lust at first sight for both of them. Niki’s flirting skills are rusty but Sam isn’t much better. Sam lives in London, Niki in Seattle, and because there’s no risk about bumping into each other after the wedding, Niki is onboard for a fling. She’s never had a fling and thinks it’d be a great way to get rid of her goody-two-shoes image.
Sam and Niki are both close friends of the bride and both of them get invited to join the bride and groom on their honeymoon, in fact, there’s a whole group of friends going along to Goa.

Side note: I think it’s a wonderful idea to have your best friends along on a holiday and this couple had been together since high school and had been on a lot of holidays together already anyway and combined with a massive wedding I get that you’d like some quality time with the “insiders”. What made it slightly weird for me was that it was still referred to as a honeymoon instead of as just a holiday but probably that’s just the word association.

Although they are not officially a couple (Niki has her mind set on nothing serious) they are considered so by their friends and basically anybody they meet. It doesn’t help that Sam invites her to stay at his family’s home. His mother is there as well so it’s no wonder their fling doesn’t move beyond flirting and some kisses. Niki’s sister warns her that this is all too serious for a holiday romance but Niki doesn’t want to hear it and shouts angry words back at her.
After the call, she has to admit that this is indeed more than a holiday romance and tired of being the boring one, is ready to throw caution in the wind: because she’s between jobs anyway, and he’s seen her at her worst after she suffers from food poisoning, she tells Sam she will move to London for him. As I can tell from personal experience it’s not smart to move country for anyone unless you really want to move for yourself as well. Because Sam’s smarter than both Niki and me, he tells her that. But because Niki isn’t really listening she’s hurt by the message, and the travel romance becomes the travel drama.

This book is a lot of things: it has romance, travel, self-discovery, and cultural sense of being.
Every time I felt I had reached my limits with Niki, she did something that made me give her another chance. And in the end she did show growth and development and those are the most important things in a main character.
Most importantly, I really liked reading a book set during a non-Christmas holiday and will be on the lookout for others. Additionally, I’ll also be on the lookout for the follow-up on this book, which is centered around Niki’s sister Jasmine.

No. 7 – A non-fiction book
A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages : the World Through Medieval Eyes / Anothony Bale

I admit that before picking up this book, my knowledge of the Middle Ages was pretty limited: knights. Plagues. No Netflix.
Thankfully, this book contains a lot of information so I now know much more. It’s dry in the sense that it contains a lot of names, dates and places. But it isn’t written like a lecture; it isn’t boring. It’s written for any knit-wit that wants to learn more, and I was happy to sign up. And sheesh, did I learn stuff.

First of all: there’s not that much difference between preparing for travel back in the Middle Ages and the present day. Bags are packed, money and travel papers set aside, guidebooks purchased.
Of course, last-minute trips to a sunny destination were not what it was about back then, and travel was mostly pilgrimage related. However, travellers back then bought souvenirs, kept track of their adventures, and tried to make sense of new / other cultures, like we still do today. We have stickers or emblems with flags that get sewn onto backpacks, they had patches they wore on their lapels. They bought walking sticks and hats, we buy keychains and t-shirts.
They wrote their names on walls and doors of sites they visited, we…well, that one hasn’t changed a bit.
They kept diaries and wrote books on their findings (or made them up completely), we blog, tweet, and post (heavily edited or not) on Instagram.
And mass tourism is nothing new: back then, people travelled in caravans of up to thousands of pilgrims through the Holy Land.

The book is set up like a trip: it starts with a chapter on preparations, then there are the actual travel chapters, and it ends with a chapter on homecoming.
Great care has gone into making the reader understand the time and place. For example, referring to the Holy Land nowadays for Christians means Israel. But, back then, it meant any land mentioned in the bible, leading to a geographical area that included what are now Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt.
And while this book isn’t about pilgrimages but travel in general, pilgrimage was the biggest reason for regular people (non-soldiers, non-crusaders) to travel. Therefore, there are a lot of biblical references, especially in the first half of the book. But, the book also touches on the other travel patterns: south into northern Africa, and the Silk Roads east. Of course, this is because the second biggest reason to travel, was trade.
Almost everything in this book is based on western European perspectives, with one chapter offering a glimpse into the view from “the other side”. (Spoiler alert: aside from the travel direction there wasn’t much of a difference.)

The author cites from travel books, diaries and (auto)biographies of the time and I like to imagine that this means he got to visit libraries and archives and spent copious amounts of time in them, with these manuscripts in front of him. Which is as close as we can get to time travelling. I’m only slightly jealous.

Non-fiction reads different from fiction and even though the book in pocket only comes down to 360 or something pages, it was slower goings than “normal” with so much information to digest. But I liked this book a lot and I learned so much on this pretty random topic.

This book is for anyone who is open-minded and eager to learn something. If you’re into history, travel, and/or the Middle Ages, that’s an added bonus.